
LIMA, Peru — The suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway is expected to be extradited to the U.S. to face fraud charges related to the case.
Peruvian authorities made the announcement Wednesday that they will allow the extradition of Joran van der Sloot, who is currently serving time for the murder of another woman, to face charges related to the Holloway case.
18-year-old Holloway went missing in Aruba after taking a graduation trip with her high school.
The teen was last seen leaving a club with Van der Sloot and three other men.
Van der Sloot was arrested for Holloway’s disappearance but was never charged and later released.
After searching for the teen for several years, in 2012, a judge officially declared the teen dead.
Van der Sloot convinced Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother to wire a total of $25,000 for the location of her daughter’s body.
$15,000 was transferred to Van der Sloot’s account in the Netherlands, while $10,000 was wired to Van der Sloot’s lawyer to be delivered to him in Aruba.
Van der Sloot then told the lawyer where he could locate Holloway’s body, but the location was a lie, which Van der Sloot later revealed in an email.
Van der Sloot was charged in 2010 with two federal counts that deal with extortion and wire fraud but Van der Sloot had been arrested for the murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman and sentenced to 28 years in a Peruvian jail.
Peru previously agreed to extradite van der Sloot after he finished serving the murder sentence in 2038, however, the government announced Wednesday that they would allow the extradition sooner.
“It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee,” Natalee’s mother said.
“I want to express my sincere gratitude to President Dina Boluarte, the President of Peru, the warm people of Peru, the family of Stephany Flores, the FBI in Miami, Florida, and in Birmingham, Alabama, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Birmingham, the U.S. Embassy in Peru and the Peruvian Embassy in the US, my longtime attorney John Q. Kelly who has worked tirelessly on this case, and George Seymore and Marc Wachtenheim of Patriot Strategies,” she continued.